Grant Morrison’s “Batman and Robin” gives heroes new roles
Former Robin (and Nightwing) Dick Grayson took over for his mentor in “Batman and Robin” 1-16 by Grant Morrison. The dynamic of the Batman and Robin team is flipped from the traditional: Batman is the more upbeat hero, while young Damian Wayne, the 10-year-old son of Bruce Wayne, is a grim and determined (if bratty) avenger.
It makes for great Batman-Robin interplay in a way we haven’t seen before. Add a new flying Batmobile, a new Batcave and some new, creepy villains, and you have the makings of a classic run.
Morrison teams up with his “All-Star Superman” and “New X-Men” collaborator, artist Frank Quitely, for the first three issues of “Batman and Robin.” Other artists on the run included Philip Tan, Cameron Stewart, Andy Clarke and Frazer Irving.
Other recently read Batman issues.
Batman Adventures 1-2 (1992)
The Joker manipulates the Penguin and Catwoman into being his pawns in these two issues, based on the award-winning animated series.
Tales of the Batman: Gene Colan Vol. 1
DC Comics recently collected the atmospheric art of Gene Colan’s Batman into this volume. It’s not comprehensive, but it does provide a good snapshot of Colan’s work in the early 1980s. This volume contains Batman 340, 343-345 and 348-351 and Detective Comics 517, 520, 528 and 529. The storylines bounce around from book to book, and occasionally some story beats are resolved in uncollected issues, but it still makes for a nice, readable volume with amazing artwork. Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway and Doug Moench are among the writers in this volume — the Moench stories are probably the standouts.
Batman: Year Two
Notable for the Todd McFarlane pencils on three of the four parts (Alan Davis drew the other), “Batman: Year Two” was a four-part storyline in Detective Comics #575-578. Batman faces off against Gotham’s first vigilante, The Reaper. The later one-shot, Batman: Full Circle, is collected in the tpb Batman Year Two: Fear the Reaper. Full Circle, released in 1991, was drawn by Alan Davis. Mike W. Barr is the writer. The storyline, which is probably no longer canonical, was part of the inspiration for the movie Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.
- Matt Price
Comics read in 2011: 1,527. Still to go: 484.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
DL –
Thanks! I think I’m going to make it, getting closer!
I’m not going to NYCC this year – might make it to Austin, but that’s about it for planned con travel for me for the rest of 2011.
- Matt
[...] 3 (45) Following Final Crisis, check out “Batman and Robin,” which I talked about here. Then “Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne” features Bruce’s trip through time as [...]
Matt,
With only 484 comics left to go, your really starting to close the gap on me. I’ve had about a month of low output (comics read). I need to really re-focus. I have 335 comics to go.
Hang in there.
D.L.
ps: Are you going to the New York Comic-Con?